Explain stereotyping in organizational behavior

Answer 1

A. Stereotyping in Organizational Settings 1. Stereotyping is an extension of social identity. 2. It is the process of assigning traits to people based upon their membership in a social category. a. Scholars say that stereotypes generally have some inaccuracies, some overestimation or underestimation of real differences, and some degree of accuracy. b. One problem with stereotyping is that stereotyped traits do not accurately describe every person in that social category. c. People also develop inaccurate stereotypes under certain conditions, such as the degree to which they interact with people in that group. d. Another problem is that we develop inaccurate stereotypes of groups to enhance our own social identity. 3. Ethical problems with stereotypes. a. The greatest concern is that stereotyping lays the foundation for prejudice - unfounded negative emotions toward people belonging to a particular stereotyped group. b. Stereotyping could also be partly responsible for sexual harassment - the unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature that detrimentally affects the work environment or leads to adverse job-related consequences for victims. 4. Attribution Theory a. The attribution process involves deciding whether an observed behavior or event is largely caused by internal or external factors. b. Internal attribution involves believing that an employee performs the job poorly because he or she lacks the necessary competencies or motivation. c. External attribution occurs if people believe the employee performs the job poorly because he or she lacks sufficient resources to do the task. d. There are three attribution rules: (1) Internal attributions are made when the observed individual behaved this way in the past (high consistency), (2) Did not behave like this toward other people or in different situations (low distinctiveness), (3) Other people do not behave this way in similar situations (low consensus).